Matt Taibbi grew up in the Boston area. A 1992 graduate of Bard College in upstate New York. Taibbi founded the Buffalo alt-weekly, The Beast. He spent several years in Russia, where he co-founded a free bi-weekly English-language newspaper, the eXile. In addition to his work as a contributing editor for Rolling Stone, his stories and columns have appeared in The Nation, Playboy and New York Press. He also makes occasional appearances on MSNBC.

Taibbi, who calls Sanders one of his political heroes, met Sanders while he was still a congressman. On his Rolling Stone blog, Taibbi says at the time Sanders was in the House he followed him around for several weeks gathering information for a story called “Four Amendments and a Funeral.”

In 2008, Taibbi was awarded a National Magazine Award for his Rolling Stone columns.